February 9 - Bright Enlightenment

Up bright and early for first day at St. Mary's -- with Christine, Karina, and A.J. -- for Music and the Enlightenment (beginning featuring Reformation-era chorales of Martin Luther and the Hugh Aston My Lady Carey's Dompe),



with the sun glaring/streaming over the hills and world at large.



Back to Diablo Valley College for Theory thereafter, in a dictation of the Orkney Island Hymn to St. Magnus, and the lab, to record Saul! Saul!: II. Along the Monstrous Atheists Strode (default sounds from the Triton rack and c. 26 beats from ACID loops rock samples -- geological music!).



Next, in heading to Half Moon Bay, return to the Lafayette-Moraga Trail for a brief jaunt past giant Eucalypts,



sunset foothills,



and stately, plump residences.



West toward the San Mateo Bridge, clouds mount up as fantasy ridges,



the moon a polished scimitar among crescent ufos at Miramar Beach,



and the Henry Purcell Dioclesian score is waiting for me at Marilyn's, as arranged.



John B's house is illumined, but quiet,



amongst a generally subdued architectural array,



so up the coast, adjacent to ghostly waves, and home to Harriet, where the beginning orchestration of Saul!: III. O early Piety! awaits....

February 8 - Rain! Rain!

Home all day in the fitful rain, just enough sun to keep one guessing; Harriet reigning in Berkeley for Marriage of Figaro.



I reign in the remainder of the orchestration to Saul! Saul!: II. Along the Monster Atheists strode (a.k.a. Eli's Sons) -- for a movement total of 12 pages.

February 7 - Cross-Cultural Return

Second Henry Purcell Dioclesian / Mark Alburger Diocletian rehearsal with members of San Francisco Cabaret Opera at Berkeley Chamber Arts House,



with Indre et al in fine voice,



then off to Moraga Boulevard (a first),



past hills and


old orchards,



up St. Mary's Road




to Syufy Hall and the Chapel. Time for another walk.



The inclined plane of Mission Road leads into the hills



above dormatories,



becoming a gravel path,



ascending to the observatory



and solitary



cross,



looking across to St. Mary's Ridge,



ahead to the Berkeley Hills,



Rheem Hill,



and even, astoundingly, our distant Vaca Mountains, of all landmarks....



From this vantage point, the campus lies map-like below,



including Syufy Hall, the Library,



and Chapel.



A friendly recent alumnus, on a visit from Dana Point, has reached the summit as well, and we chat back to the trailhead, to vistas including a compromised Las Trampas Ridge,



the Observatory,



and the general splendor of the EBMUD (what an ungracious name in all this beauty) and Open Space Districts.



Crosses seem to the order of the day, at the start of a second walk, continuing on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail at the hardly-further-modified



Christian Church,



near the trail's turnoff from St. Mary's Road.



Here the course is somewhat more prosaic, until Rheem Hill's bare, decidous, parasite-festooned oaks loom into view,



at the Leisure Estates crossing (something about that nomenclature....) and



the cows take over,



staring,



glowering,



indifferent,



as the sun streaks through (beam me up, Cowie!)



and the trampled grass is renewed.



'Nuff said, and photographed, so there's nothing for it but to get on Route 24 west, with Diablo dominating,



and make the way back to Lagoon Valley in a daylight full moon,



with the North Lagoons making their characteristic surreal showing.



Harriet returns from various SF Cabaret Opera meetings, and I return to an orchestration of Saul! Saul!: II. Eli's Sons, page 3.

February 6 - Clear-Headed Cloudiness

Finish the March 2009 issue of 21st-Century Music (21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and soon at 21st-centurymusic.com and in print), then down to St. Mary's again, via the clouds



and colors around the 24 / 680 interchange at Walnut Creek,



and a brief twilight walk on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail, looping back via the L. Community Center, past the ghost gallery forest of Las Trampas Creek. Continue to test the teaching set up, now with a power strip and the document textbook in tow, along with everything else. On the return, a brief adventure with the local law-enforcers (just a warning re a headlight out -- welcome info) and an hour at the DVC lab to work on copies of Purcell Dioclesian for Harriet and record


Saul! Saul!: I. Hannah's Lament, arriving home to produce the first two pages of orchestration of the second movement, re Eli and company.